¶ … Visions
New Lands? Old Ideas
The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries were the great age of European exploration in the New World. Spain concerned itself with South America and the Caribbean, while countries such as France and England turned northward to the great, unknown vastness of the North American continent. Men such as Verrazzano, Hariot, and Champlain arrived to explore and to record their experiences of this mysterious land. Strange new plants and animals, curious native customs, and assessments of natural resources all appear in the pages of their respective accounts. Yet their visions of this New World were colored by the expectations of the old. European dreams of hidden riches, and Spanish discoveries of gold and silver enliven their observations. These earliest of descriptions of North America are as much commentaries on contemporary European society and its aspirations, as they are catalogs of new things and new places.
The earliest of these explorers, Giovanni da Verrazzano, explored the coasts of what are now Nova Scotia and New England for the King of France. It was the land the French called Acadia, and Verrazzano found it filled with delights: friendly natives, plenty of food, a pleasant climate, and mountains packed with valuable minerals. Kindly natives helped Verrazzano and his men through many difficulties. They graciously shared the bounty of their land. They even pointed out which animals and plants were useful, and allowed Verrazzano and his Frenchmen to travel unmolested along the coast and for some distance inland. Nearly everything Verrazzano saw and noted accords with a description of some sort of Eden. Jaded Europeans accustomed to the doctrinal infighting of the Reformation, and the bloody religious wars of Europe saw in the Native Americans gentle children of nature. The natives lived close to the land and the land provided them with everything they needed...in abundance. Of course, this earthly paradise was also perfectly suited to the cultivation of practically every known - and more importantly commercially valuable - European crop. Like the mountains of Mexico and Peru, Acadia's hills and mountains held stores of valuable minerals. The climate of this northern land was compared to Illyria and Dalmatia on the Adriatic. In short, Acadia was a dream come true, a blissful land filled with happy people, and blessed with a surfeit of resources and a beautiful climate. Europeans could not only settle in this new world, they could make their fortunes as well.
The theme of economic success was carried still further by Thomas Hariot, an English astronomer and naturalist who accompanied Sir Walter Raleigh to Virginia (now North Carolina) in 1587. Hariot's, "Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia," was written especially for the benefit of investors in the colonization scheme. Hariot says this in his preface, also taking time to warn the reader to be careful to ignore the negative comments of certain members of the expedition. That some of the first settlers failed to appreciate Virginia's charms is owing to the fact that either they never left the island on which the party disembarked, or that they did not find the instant riches of which they had dreamed. However, Hariot is determined to let us know that Virginia is as rich and as well endowed as any Spanish colony. Through some unexplained freak of nature, its climate - which is like every land from Persia to the Azores - enables it to support every conceivable crop. Indian corn, as well as English wheat and rye can be grown, and though they didn't try it, so can sugarcane. The Asiatic silkworm spins huge cocoons in the trees, and tropical parrots chatter in the branches. Giant tortoises meander through the forests and along the seashore. The natives are in awe of the Englishmen and think they are gods. And just in case the European's divine powers should fail him, Hariot is quick to add that the Native Americans are entirely lacking in any knowledge of metals and machinery, so the results of any battle between Englishman and native can be "easily imagined." The message of Hariot's account is clear - Virginia is a fruit ripe for the plucking; its people are easily controlled, and its land promises an abundant harvest. Climatic and physical realities notwithstanding, Virginia is a veritable treasure-trove filled with anything a greedy European could want.
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